An AI just embarrassed the US Air Force in a virtual dogfight
Here’s how the combat went down
The final dogfight
Heron quickly built up a 4-0 lead. Gunned down four times but somehow still alive, Banger had no choice but to change up his gameplan.
“The standard things that we do as fighter pilots are not working, so for this last one, I’ll try to change it up a little bit just to see if we can do something different,” he said.
“That initial turn is where I lose a lot of life… I’ve just gotta look for opportunities to minimize that distance separation away from the adversary, try to get him back in so I press inside or stay outside his nose area.”
Banger pulled up to 9Gs — nine times the force of gravity — and hit speeds over 500mph. He then dropped the jet down to 13,000 feet, trying to drag Heron close to the ground. The plan seemed to be working. Heron couldn’t get its gun low enough to shoot.
But within a few seconds, the AI was back on Banger’s tail. Lead commentator Chris “Disco” Demay called the action:
Ready for combat?
DARPA plans to translate the lessons from the AlphaDogfight Trials to the real world. But don’t expect AI to be shooting planes out the sky any time soon.
In a simulation, a machine has perfect information. But that doesn’t exist in the fog of war. As Animal put it: “Modeling and simulation is doomed to succeed.”
The AI could have been “latching onto some weird digital artifact that we weren’t thinking about or considering, and that’s what was giving them an advantage,” he added. “There were certainly some peculiar behaviors in the engagement.”
In addition, the rules-based nature of dogfights is a good fit for AI.
The contest was also staged on an outdated battlefield, as dogfights are far more common in movies than in real-life these days. But if you can’t wait till theTop Gun sequelfor some aerial combat, you can catch a replay of the battles in the video below, timestamped at just before take-off for your viewing pleasure.
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Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.
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